12-08-2025, 12:15 AM
Nikolai studied them both in silence. Truth was a fickle, malleable thing sometimes hidden behind good intentions but more often nefarious than not, but he didn’t think Nox was lying. There was just something about his face that revealed guilt too easily to misconstrue his words.
He wondered whether there was a flow of Power that could compel only truth. If there was, he would have used it in this moment.
What Eliot and Nox had said was nothing he hadn’t suspected. Nothing, even, he hadn’t once known. The Atharim were everywhere. Embedded like rot in the bones of old trees. And if he had once believed that his inner circle was untouched, it was only because he had chosen to believe it. That, too, was a kind of guilt.
His tone shifted away from the edge of danger and into a temporary truce. “We will move this conversation indoors,” Nikolai said at last. “And I will entertain it further. On one condition.”
His expression was deadly still. “You will tell me which of my inner circle bears the mark of the Atharim. I want them all.”
He looked first to Eliot, then to Helena, though it was unclear who he expected the truth to come from.
“You speak of mutual trust,” he said. “This is its price. Pay it, or we are finished here.”
He wondered whether there was a flow of Power that could compel only truth. If there was, he would have used it in this moment.
What Eliot and Nox had said was nothing he hadn’t suspected. Nothing, even, he hadn’t once known. The Atharim were everywhere. Embedded like rot in the bones of old trees. And if he had once believed that his inner circle was untouched, it was only because he had chosen to believe it. That, too, was a kind of guilt.
His tone shifted away from the edge of danger and into a temporary truce. “We will move this conversation indoors,” Nikolai said at last. “And I will entertain it further. On one condition.”
His expression was deadly still. “You will tell me which of my inner circle bears the mark of the Atharim. I want them all.”
He looked first to Eliot, then to Helena, though it was unclear who he expected the truth to come from.
“You speak of mutual trust,” he said. “This is its price. Pay it, or we are finished here.”